My Adventures of Running, Life and Everything Else Through the Years

VA Beach Shamrock Half 2015 Round Up

Half number 8 completed 8 days after half number 7 🙂 Such an accomplishment! The VA Beach Half was great! I would definitely run this race again. I would make a long weekend out of the event as well. The expo was fun, and definitely not crowded. We arrived Thursday night and we were able to get settled in and make it to the expo on Friday mid afternoon. One of the members of the group was going through the expo and race experience for the first time. So he was like a kid in the candy shop. It was easy to get our bibs and then head to the shirts. No lines at this point. J&A Racing had several items for sale which was great and reasonably priced. I got a new tank top to run in this spring and summer. Then we were able to mosey around the expo and visit a few other booths and get some freebie items.

Saturday came around and it was so nice out. It was still a bit chilly but there wasn’t a rain drop in site. Saturday we walked around Norfolk and got to visit some great sites after some lunch. It was a heavy walking day but not as much as Sunday was going to be. We got to visit some of the ships and see the dry docks. I would love to go back and visit and enjoy all that Norfolk has to offer. Obviously with the race the next day, it was an early night and I got about 6 hours of sleep so that wasn’t bad.

The Course

Sunday was an early day waking up at 4:30am. YIKES! Who decides to wake up that early on a Sunday?! Well this group did. We had breakfast, got ready for the race, in our race day attire. I had a plot twist for my outfit since it was cooler than I thought it would be. I wore a gray tank top with my gray pullover and of course my sparkle skirt, visor and rainbow socks. My feet were acting up from the day before so I taped them up and brought Advil with me. Before we knew it we were headed to the race start line. I was in corral 4 so that wasn’t bad. I was able to start strong. I stuck with my 4 minute run/1 minute walk ratio. I find it so much easier to concentrate on those 4 minutes versus how many miles I have left. I think this will help with my marathon training and running the NYC Marathon. You don’t realize how fast that 1 minute walk goes by.

Major respect to this guy!

I finished in 2 hours 28 minutes. It was nice to finish. Definitely not my fastest time but for not really training, I’ll certainly take it. My sister and her boyfriend had a friend running his first marathon down there so we went and cleaned up and then headed back to the finish line and finish line party. It was nice. My feet still hurt so I didn’t venture into the sand too much. I stayed on terra firma so I could get off my feet and sit. The after party was awesome and hope that when I run this race again, I’ll be able to be out on the sand and not dealing with the pain of my feet. It was chilly out and I didn’t bring a sweatshirt but they gave us towels at the finish line so I was able to stay warmer than if I hadn’t had that. Before long we were sitting in a restaurant and having some food before we left to go back to where we were staying to venture home.

When I do this race again, I would get up early Friday morning and venture down to VA

The bling!

Beach and stay until Monday so I could have a leisurely weekend and didn’t have to rush back to go back to work. I would even consider going down Friday night. The only downside would be the possible crowds at the expo on Saturday. But overall I would definitely run this race. The on course support was amazing. The water and gatorade was every 1.5 miles and the gu was offered at mile 5 or so. That came quick since it’s usually offered at mile 9 during a half marathon course. It was great and the last few tenths of a mile on the boardwalk was great. It was good spectator watching and cheering us on as we finished. It was great.